The 30-share index Sensex extended its gains around Wednesday noon and was ruling 1.28% higher than Monday's closing mark on account of continued buying witnessed in index pivotals.

Metal stocks gained the most accompanied by auto, capital goods, PSU and power stocks.

Mid-to-small capitalized company shares were also in favor with investors, with the BSE midcap index trading 1.63% higher and the BSE smallcap index surging 1.59%.

At 01.00 pm., the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which belled the day at 17,117.9, stood at ruling at 17,244.50 after gaining 217.83 points.

Around the same time, the S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), too was trading in the positive at 5,120.40 after gaining 66.15 points.

The overall breadth of the market was positive as 1,758 stocks posted gains, 860 went down whereas 84 remained unchanged.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Metal surged 4.56%, Auto climbed 2.53%, Capital Goods zoomed 2.01%, Power increased 1.64% and PSU grew 1.53%.

The major gainers in the Sensex pack included Mah & Mah (6.39%), Sterlite Ind (5.25%), Tata Motors (3.86%), Tata Steel (3.23%), JP Asso (3.12%) and Hindalco (2.95%).

On the other hand, the major losers' list comprised RCom (3.87%), Bharti Airtel (3.09%), Grasim Ind (0.21%) and ACC (0.06%).